Nikki Haley’s campaign has celebrated her as the first woman to win a Republican primary, but she faces significant challenges with Donald Trump poised to secure the nomination.
In her first victory of the 2024 Republican primaries, Haley triumphed in the District of Columbia. She secured 62.9% of the vote, surpassing Trump’s 33.2%. Despite this win, Haley only gained 19 delegates, a fraction of the 1,215 required for nomination.
Her campaign highlighted the historic nature of her win, emphasizing her status as the first woman to achieve this feat in US history. However, they also noted that Haley faces a tough road ahead.
A spokesperson for Haley’s campaign attributed her victory to a rejection of Trump’s leadership style and the chaos surrounding his administration.
Despite her win, Haley faces daunting odds in her bid to secure the Republican nomination and challenge Joe Biden in the November election. Trump has dominated the first eight nominating contests, making Haley’s path forward challenging.
Opinion polls indicate that the former president is poised to secure victory in nearly all upcoming contests.
Recently, Trump swept all 39 delegates at the Michigan Republican party convention. With fifteen states holding primaries on Tuesday, it’s anticipated that Trump’s position as the Republican candidate will be solidified.
Despite her ongoing string of losses, Haley has affirmed her commitment to remaining in the race at least through these upcoming contests. However, she has refrained from singling out any specific primary where she feels confident of winning. Following her recent loss in her home state of South Carolina, Haley emphasized the importance of offering voters in subsequent states an alternative to Trump, despite his overwhelming dominance in the campaign thus far.
Haley hosted a rally in the nation’s capital on Friday before proceeding to North Carolina and a string of states with Super Tuesday primaries.
During her typical campaign speech, where she criticized Trump for increasing the federal deficit, an attendee shouted, “He cannot win a general election. It’s madness.” Haley echoed this sentiment, asserting that she can prevent Biden from securing a second term, whereas Trump may not be able to.
Washington is one of the most heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the nation, with only around 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. Additionally, a significant number of federal workers reside there, whom Trump allies have vowed to dismiss en masse and replace with loyalists if he wins in November.
“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders that want to protect the failed status quo,” stated Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign press secretary, in a release.
This isn’t the first instance of Republicans in the capital rebuffing Trump. In the last competitive Republican nominating contest in the District of Columbia in 2016, Trump received less than 14% of the vote and no delegates, despite ultimately winning the nomination nationally.
